The second season of Star Trek: Prodigy arrived on Netflix at the beginning of the month and it still has fans buzzing. TrekMovie has been binging the new season over the few last weeks and has already covered the mid-season finale reveal of the return of Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation. In a spoilery interview with Prodigy series co-creators and executive producers Kevin and Dan Hageman, we talk about Wesley’s return, how the show connects to Star Trek canon, setting the series up for the future, and more.
The season picks up with the gang as Academy trainees. Would you say there is an attempt to make the show more grounded for the target audience, putting the characters into a more school-like setting?
Dan Hageman: Yeah, we are looking at these are kids moving into the adult world after having a ship of their own. And we felt like that was a thing where it actually would be kind of boring if they were just on a Starfleet ship. They wouldn’t have much to do. And how do we bring their shenanigans in?
Kevin Hageman: It would be just like Lower Decks all of a sudden. I love how Dal, as exciting as it is to be on the new Voyager. They’re yearning for the old days of having their own ship and flying by the seat of their pants and being in charge.
The show is now set back with Starfleet around the time of Lower Decks and even around elements of Picard. For season 2, was it important to include those connections to make the show feel more part of this new Star Trek Universe of shows? And can you talk about how you coordinated that?
Kevin Hageman: Yeah, we wanted to be at the adult table. We didn’t want our show to be some separate thing. We knew we were in the same timeline window as these other shows. And so it was wonderful. Like, we had already written the character of Wesley Crusher into our series, and then with Picard, Terry [Matalas] and Akiva [Goldsman] reached out to us because they wanted to do something with him. And we were already in the pipeline with him and so we got in sync on how we can each serve each other’s shows.
Dan Hageman: I would say they did Wesley Crusher wrong–how they finished Wesley Crusher on TNG–and we are making up for it. TNG just had him like stop the frame and walk off and never gave him any closure. We’re taking that baton and doing something with it.
Wesley Crusher arrives as a pivotal character halfway through Prodigy season 2.
Kevin Hageman: We also wanted—you know, our show is not just a Voyager sequel. We are celebrating and introducing new people to everything about Star Trek. So yeah, there should be some Lower Decks, there should be some TOS in there. We wanted Tribbles in an episode, Klingons, The Mirror Universe —all these things that make Trek wonderful.
Dan Hageman: I think fans feel like the Trek world is real. And we think it’s real. too. So we are treating it as like this is all at one time. This is what’s going on in the year 2385.
You say you are not Voyager season 8, but you have three major characters with Janeway, Chakotay, and now The Doctor. Garrett Wang and Terry Matalas said they wanted Harry Kim on Picard but were told you guys “owned” Voyager. So, did you feel like you needed Voyager fans to know where all their favorite characters were in 2385?
Dan Hageman: No, there was never ever any declarations that we are the Voyager show. And I feel bad that Garrett Wang didn’t get his pips.
Kevin Hageman: Maybe that was in reference to what we’re doing with Admiral Janeway. Like it would be a shame if Picard did something to totally break what we’re doing with our show.
Dan Hageman: Season 3 is called “The Kim Collective,” so we’ll see. [laughs]
Robert Picardo’s Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager is a big part of Prodigy season 2.
There is a big story with the time paradox and Janeway’s goal of getting Chakotay back. But can you talk about how each of the kids has their own personal goals for the season?
Dan Hageman: I think we started with: Where would they be at Starfleet Academy? What type of hopefuls would they be? We knew right off the bat that Rok would be a bookworm, she would know everything. Straight As. We knew Dal would not be doing the reading, he would be very bored, struggling in school. We knew Jankom, he would see his cantankerous Tellarite ways would rub people the wrong way, so we’d love the idea of the combed-down nerd just trying to fit in. And Zero would see young love and what does that feel like? We started with that position and just kind of grew out oh, yeah, and zero would see young love and and what does that feel like? So we kind of started with that position, and then just kind of grew their characters and their arcs from that.
Can you talk about developing Maj’el and why add a new character to the mix? And, was this young Vulcan character developed before T’Lyn on Lower Decks?
Dan Hageman: Yes, it came up before T’Lyn was created. But we were always like, imagine you’re someone who’s never seen Star Trek and this is your first experience. Who represents it more than Vulcans? And so we really wanted to introduce a Vulcan character. Plus, even a Klingon, which is why there is an episode with a Klingon. So that was the inspiration.
Kevin Hageman: We were inspired by seeing a teenage Vulcan, which we thought was really interesting. And on top of that, our kids going on to Voyager, we love this idea that they’re the misfit students. Ma’jel is a part of Nova Squadron, which is like Top Gun. She’s like Iceman to Maverick.
Dan Hageman: We just thought it would be nice to bring someone else new to the group so it wasn’t like our group is closed, our clubhouse is closed, no more. We want to be able to grow this group because I feel like at season 6 they may have a full crew. Let’s see what’s the whole swath of what Gwyn’s crew looks like.
The new character Maj’el shakes things up for the gang in season 2 of Prodigy
Check out our earlier interview with Dan and Kevin for more about the second season and their thoughts on a potential third season.
Season 2 of Prodigy is available to stream on Netflix globally (excluding Canada, Nordics, CEE, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Russia, Belarus and Mainland China) and season one is currently available on SkyShowtime in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Central and Eastern Europe with season two coming soon. Season two has launched in France on France Televisions channels and Okoo.
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Six seasons and a movie! Sounds pretty official to me.
Not until someone pays for it.
I appreciate how they developed Wesley in this season. Such fun! Wil Wheaton’s voice acting was excellent.
I was quite surprised! Damned good work. Dude’s a natural. Wasn’t expecting that. :)
“I would say they did Wesley Crusher wrong–how they finished Wesley Crusher on TNG”
On the contrary, I thought how they wrapped up Wesley’s character was perfect.
I haven’t watched the new season of Prodigy yet, but this makes me think that it’s going to be more amateurish, fannish writing along the lines of the comics we see discussed here.
If you liked season one, you should enjoy season two.
It’s not, really. The teen characters are still sometimes written and acted to be more broad (Dal and Jankom are the hardest for me to watch), but the story is very smart and would fit in on any of the other shows past or present.
Not gotten to the Wesley reveal yet. This screenshot is a little terrifying, but I have no doubt Wheaton is fantastic and they will bridge the sizeable gap between TNG and Picard. I don’t hate the reason why he left the show in Journey’s End, but it did feel very abrupt and the emotional aspect paled in comparison with Final Mission. His appearance in Nemesis just raised more questions too. I dont know if Prodigy deals with it, but I wish he could get better closure with his mother, that relationship was such a missed opportunity.
I wish he could get better closure with his mother, that relationship was such a missed opportunity.
Up to which episode have you watched so far?
Now up to 13. I hope there’s a little more to come, but appreciated what they’ve done on that front so far.
🤫…😉
I have now watched to the end!
“I haven’t watched the new season yet, but…”
Proceeds to complain about things that don’t happen.
How can anyone have an opinion of something they haven’t seen?
I mean, have you met a Star Trek fan?
Well played my friend!
This series truly is how trek should move forward. The writing is so good, it works for children and adults. It respects it’s target audience = kids, treats them as developing human beings as opposed to some shows which treat kids as if their stupid and gives them dumbed down content.
agree. I don’t love Prodigy but I love the clear heart they have for Trek. Fan service to a degree yes, but fan service very very well done.
Apart from Discovery, every show is basically just relying on fan service to gain fan appreciation at the moment, it’s a little sad.
I’m halfway through this second season, and while I’m enjoying it, I certainly don’t want all Trek moving forward to take its cues from this show. That’s the beauty of the format they have set up for the franchise now. Every show can be different and that’s a good thing IMO. I love SNW and DIS but glad there are other options and tones available too.
Agree 100%!
This show is so fantastic and just represents Star Trek in all the best ways. I also love that it doesn’t talk down to the kids either and let them firmly know this is what Star Trek is in all its weird, complicated and clever ways .
Please, no Harry Kim! If you have to bring in another Voyager character, then how about Tuvok?
How about both!?
How about modern day Star Trek shows (and fans) abandon this *obsession* with legacy characters showing up all the time for easy fan service wins. DEVELOP NEW CHARACTERS.
There are lots of new characters.
And yet no one cares about any of them, because they’re too focused on the legacy ones that end up taking episodes over.
Plenty of people care about them Harry. You know how I know, because I along with others here talk about them week in and week out for about seven years now.
No offense, it’s very eye rolling that you to want to complain people only care about ‘legacy characters’ but seem to have missed the multiple discussions and fan favorites of new characters from Lorca to Saru, Hemmer, Rios, T’Lyn, Tendi and Shaw. Maj’el seems to be the new fan favorite as everyone is now talking about her. And TM is not the only Trek site out there. Seriously.
They are all discussed quite a bit everywhere online. There have been countless fan-made Youtube videos created around them. However, since the majority have been around less than five seasons (and in many cases like Lorca, Hemmer and Shaw only in one season) you’re not going to have the same level of discussion for characters who has been around for 25+ years and in over a hundred episodes. That’s just reality.
And maybe instead of spending all your time discussing how no one cares about new characters, maybe you should actually discuss some of them yourself as you spent zero time here so far doing that. Start a discussion here and tell us a few of your favorites. Who do you like and why? Let’s go!
But It’s no different than people who complain that fans just come here to put down modern Trek but yet doesn’t take any effort to discuss what they actually like about it themselves. They just come to complain about everyone else and those people get annoying…fast.
And I suspect you’re just Emily under a new handle. Because it’s literally the same broken record and repeated diatribe as it was with her over and over and over again.
I don’t like Harry Kim, plus I’d rather see new characters.
I don’t think GW would have been able to keep his mouth shut on Delta Flyers podcast (which is infinitely better for having Armin and Terry on there) if he were showing up. He’d be acting coy and dropping hints all the time
I don’t listen to his podcast, since I don’t like him, but I agree with you that he’d be showing the behavior you describe if he had a role on one of the new Treks.
What’s wrong with GW? Hes great on the podcast. Him and RDM play off each other amazingly. You can tell they’re friends.
Absolutely love The Delta Flyers and in fact listening to the latest episode today. Both Wang and RDM did a deep dive into Voyager in both how the show was made and their analysis of each episode I greatly appreciated. After so many decades you think you know pretty much everything about these shows only to learn not even close lol. And you just learn a lot about TV production in general; especially from RDM since he’s a director too.
Really enjoying their run through of DS9 as well with Armin Shimmerman and Terry Ferrell.
I couldn’t take more than a couple of seasons of Delta Flyers because of GW. It’s only my love for DS9, Armin and Terry that have brought me back. Yes, you can tell that GW and RDM are good friends, but GW is so annoying. He’s just a huge dork with no sense of timing, volume, how to not interput, adding valuable information, etc…
(yes, I acknowledge the irony of calling somebody a work via a post on a Star Trek fan site….;)
OK fair enough but I really like GW on it personally. To be honest, the person I didn’t really love being there was Terry. I feel bad for saying this but she felt a little annoying to me the same way you feel about Wang. Just something about her. But now I totally love her being there; it just took a little more time for me. But I love listening to Armin the most every time he shows up.
And I had no idea his wife appeared in an episode on the show until they discussed it on Delta Flyers. As said, you’re constantly learning new things about all of them.
Also just hit me for the first time today Robert Duncan McNeil and Ronald D. Moore has the same initials. ;)
There are a lot of behind-the-scenes anecdotes about how badly he treated his co-stars and how unprofessionally he behaved, because he thought he was oh-so-special.
Wow, uhhh… still working our way through the season, thanks for the massive spoiler… :-(
Blame Netflix. This is what happens with binge models, and TrekMovie warned us a few times things could get spoilery.
I will say of all the new shows, Prodigy does lend itself best to a binge. Still there is the issue of how to be on the same page as everyone else and the fan discussions aren’t going to last 20 weeks like they would have in a weekly release, but all the cliffhangers and short runtimes make this a breezy watch.
I hear you but the entire season has been out two weeks already. I get articles about Wheaton being on the show popping up on my phone every few days in the last week.
There is no hard set rules when it’s ok to openly discuss this stuff. Is it a week, two weeks, a month, 6 months? But it’s always been accepted once an episode has aired it’s pretty much open game. Some may wait a few days not to spoil any huge reveals but that’s usually it and as said its been out a few weeks now.
And this is exactly why people like me binged it in two days lol. Because I knew after a week all bets were off.
Love this show. So much heart into it. Truly enjoying this season. Watching it together with my family.
Would have loved a line like, “I haven’t seen such a celebration since Harry Kim became captain of the [ship name] ” Just ANY canon statement that he got promoted. I wouldn’t consider this fan service; I would consider it about time — Poor guy deserves it!
For me it’s the opposite, they’re doing fan service by withholding any mention of any promotion ever – keep him an Ensign for eternity! ;)
Harry has been promoted in every beta canon story from novels to video games. And people seem to constantly forget he was promoted to captain in Endgame as well. And thanks to all these new shows we seen promotions of every Voyager character so far: Janeway, Chakotay, Seven, Paris and Tuvok. Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I think even the Doctor now has an official rank this season. I’m not sure why Harry wouldn’t be promoted with all the others. If a former Maquis member is now a starfleet captain, pretty sure Kim would be a captain by Picard’s timeline which funny enough Picard season 3 is around the same year we saw him as captain in Endgame.
You really have to give the Hageman brothers so much credit in terms of what fantastic story tellers they are. They managed to give every major character a great arc and wrapped up the story in a beautiful way without any lingering questions (take notes Picard and Discovery). And I really thought it was great that they manage to still give the kid characters their own personal adventures just like season one. Most of us assumed they were just going to be lower deckers hanging out on Voyager the whole time to find Chakotay. But they were smart to set them up on their own quests away from the Voyager crew for half the season and then basically set up the show for season 3 just as it was in season 1. These guys truly understand their show.
And I totally loved seeing Wesley on this show. He’s a lot of fun and amazing in it. And also liked how his character basically represents all of Star Trek canon. They even threw the Kelvin movies a bone with a reference by Wesley. Who thought that would ever happen lol.
Unfortunately I think Wheaton must be a little disappointed that the show is no longer on Paramount+ and hence no discussions about it on The Ready Room. This is the first show since TNG he’s officially apart of and through the entire season and it would’ve been fun to hear his thoughts on his episodes; especially a few other neat little things that shows up in the season. Oh well.
And lastly while I know this isn’t exactly a Voyager sequel, I still love how much we got to see those characters again and how much or their lives have progressed. A lot of fans wanted to know what happen to them after they made it back to Earth and thanks to all these shows, from Picard to Prodigy we are getting a lot of their backstories filled in. It’s really fun for huge Voyager fans like myself. :)
I hope we see a few more of them on LDS next season and still have my fingers crossed that Legacy will happen and we can have Captain Seven bump into more of her Voyager family and say hello from time to time.
At first I found Wheaton’s reprisal of Wesley sounding a bit manic. Then I remembered Wheaton’s over-the-top deliveries during his post-show series on Paramount+. This isn’t mocking folk who have navigate manic incidents (I do, actually) or am I slamming Wheaton and his enthusiasm… just remarking that Wesley seemed a bit manic at first.
Has anyone else drawn an overly eager-to-find-easter-eggs connection between Wesley’s outfit on “Prodigy” and one of the turtlenecks he wore early on in TNG?